How to Upload Multiple Disc on Distrokid
Information technology's your beginning fourth dimension releasing music as an independent musician, and you've read the names DistroKid and CD Baby about a hundred times. Every bit you prepare to get your music into the globe, you need to decide which distribution service to utilize. They both perform the same basic office—getting your music in digital stores and on streaming services—only how practise you option between them?
Each distribution service comes with drawbacks that might make one amend than the other for your particular career goals. Let's review the major differences and similarities between DistroKid and CD Baby and then yous can decide which ane will piece of work hardest for yous.
Editor'southward note: This commodity was updated on July 26, 2021, to address an FAQ about CD Baby.
What'southward information technology similar to apply DistroKid, CD Babe?
CD Babe is very like shooting fish in a barrel to navigate and keeps your releases organized.
DistroKid'due south interface promotes a social bond betwixt independent artists, whereas CD Baby focuses more on the artist equally an individual. DistroKid users can customize an account profile when they input their music genres, artist inspirations, social media usernames, and their biography. DistroKid publishes this contour to its diverse community-driven promotional tools (more on these in a chip).
Different DistroKid, CD Baby doesn't facilitate any creative person-to-artist interactions or customizable social profiles. CD Babe's interface is more aesthetically pleasing than DistroKid'south though, and information technology's easier to view its creative person development tools and your releases at a glance.
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Uploading music to DistroKid is more navigable than uploading music to CD Baby. With DistroKid, you input all of your release's information on a unmarried page, whereas on CD Babe you have to click through several pages of information earlier submitting your release. Each of these CD Baby pages contains a fair amount of instructions and requirements that tin be difficult to parse. Yous're more than likely to miss some information buried in CD Baby'due south page log than with DistroKid's.
Is CD Baby more affordable than DistroKid?
You tin easily grow your audience with DistroKid'due south tools.
When it comes to charging for services, CD Infant and DistroKid take different approaches. DistroKid members pay an annual fee to release an unlimited number of singles and albums. It offers three membership plans: Musician, Musician Plus, and Label. The main drawbacks of the Musician plan, which is the cheapest, are that you tin can't set future release dates on any content, and you tin can't view release statistics.
| Musician | Musician Plus | Characterization | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Musician $19.99/yr | Musician Plus $35.99/yr | Label $79.99/yr for 5 artists |
| Unlimited vocal uploads | Musician ✓ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Number of artists | Musician 1 | Musician Plus 2 | Label 5 to 100 |
| Spotify verified checkmark | Musician ✓ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Synced lyrics for Instgram | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Characterization ✓ |
| Daily sales stats | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Characterization ✓ |
| Customizable label proper name | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable release date | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable preorder date | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable iTunes pricing | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
At that place are also more costs to DistroKid than its annual fee; to keep your releases public even after you abolish DistroKid, you must opt-in to the Leave a Legacy program. This costs a $29 USD i-time fee for a single and a $49 USD erstwhile fee for any release of two or more songs. DistroKid also charges quite a few additional fees for services like YouTube and Shazam monetization.
DistroKid charges additional fees for services like Leave a Legacy.
While DistroKid is a corking selection for artists who frequently release music and aren't interested in any boosted services, CD Infant is improve for musicians with a slower vocal rollout. CD Baby charges per release, and most of the add-ons are included in the price of a release. Those who desire their music to stay on the digital shelves indefinitely volition find CD Baby is a more economical distribution service, since it doesn't charge a Leave a Legacy fee.
CD Baby charges additional fees for its publishing administration service, CD Baby Pro Publishing, in order to collect publishing royalties. It also charges an additional $5 USD per single and $20 USD per album to give your release a UPC code, or product identifier code, which you'll demand to purchase if yous don't already take one for your song. Here'south a breakdown of how much you'll take to pay for each release (USD) if you lot don't add a UPC code:
- An album release costs $29 via CD Babe Standard.
- An album release costs $69 via CD Baby Pro Publishing.
- A unmarried release costs $9.95 via CD Infant Standard.
- A unmarried release costs $29.95 via CD Baby Pro Publishing.
How practise DistroKid and CD Baby collect and distribute royalties?
DistroKid distributes payments monthly, and CD Baby weekly, and then long as you've earned enough money to fulfill your payment threshold.
Both DistroKid and CD Baby collect reproduction royalties, a subset of recording royalties derived from masters. With DistroKid you lot retain 100% of your earnings, whereas CD Baby takes a 9% cut of your reproduction royalties. And, if yous utilise CD Baby Pro Publishing, ittakes a 15% cut of your publishing royalties.
Payment delivery between the ii services is slightly dissimilar too. DistroKid pays yous every month, whereas CD Baby pays you every Monday in one case you reach your specified earnings threshold between $10-$10,000 USD, rounded to the nearest dollar. DistroKid delivers money through PayPal or through its payment processor, Tipalti, which gives y'all access to direct deposits, wire transfers, and checks. CD Infant delivers money through PayPal, bank check, Payoneer, or direct to your bank business relationship.
DistroKid and CD Infant both collect reproduction royalties, which are a subset of recording royalties.
Yet, you lot won't be able to collect all the money that is rightfully yours with just DistroKid or CD Infant—yous'll need to sign up for a few other organizations too. To collect composition royalties of any kind, you need to become a performing rights organization (PRO) chapter with something like ASCAP, and you need to sign a deal with a publisher or publishing ambassador, such as CD Babe Pro Publishing. DistroKid does not currently offering publishing administration services, and it recommends that yous sign upwardly with Songtrust to collect your publishing royalties.
DistroKid vs CD Babe: Distribution partners and times
There's a lot to consider when you're deciding which distribution service to trust with your music.
CD Babe reviews every release submitted for distribution, which can sometimes take several weeks. DistroKid doesn't review releases earlier it distributes them, sending them to partners immediately, where they volition quickly go live. At get-go glance, y'all might retrieve that DistroKid is the winner here, but its lack of a review system leaves y'all on your own if y'all need to deal with copyright problems or bug with file requirements. DistroKid Musician subscribers also can't select their ain release date, which can create release appointment asynchrony across different distribution partners. If your song is available on Spotify but not yet on Apple Music, y'all could have issues marketing the release to your fans.
Both distribution services are partnered with numerous music streaming services and digital stores, but CD Baby'southward list is a scrap longer. What'southward more, CD Baby tin can automatically send your music to SoundExchange, which collects sound recording performance royalties, giving a cut to CD Babe. These types of royalties tin just be collected past SoundExchange. DistroKid won't transport your music to SoundExchange, merely yous tin always sign up for it on your own—y'all won't take to share any percentage of it with your distribution service that mode.
Does DistroKid have better audio quality than CD Baby?
CD Baby has more restrictions on the types of audio files you can upload.
When uploading a runway for your adjacent release you'll want to make sure the sound file is equally high quality equally possible. DistroKid accepts uploads using WAV, WMA, M4A, FLAC, MP3, and CDDA. CD Infant accepts WAV, FLAC, and MP3 files, only it highly advises confronting uploading MP3 files because they are lossy. All CD Baby files must be stereo and 16bit, with a 44.1kHz sample rate. DistroKid, on the other hand, will accept 24-bit WAV files, with sample rates of 96kHz or less, and doesn't specify restrictions for other file types.
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Creative person evolution tools and resources
thegersom It's nice to have easy access to artist development tools when y'all're an independent musician.
CD Baby and DistroKid offer different resource to members, though both services emphasize getting your music heard.
CD Baby offers cheap machine audio mastering on its website and tin can help connect you with professional sound engineers. CD Baby continually publishes manufactures to its weblog DIY Musician, which is an first-class resource to learn nigh the music industry and how to brand it as an independent artist. CD Baby also has a relationship with Show.co which offers discounts on promotional tools such equally personalized audio ads on Spotify and banner ads on websites like Rolling Stone. CD Infant places a decent corporeality of emphasis on physical sales, and offers in-business firm CD manufacturing and vinyl pressing.
The differences between DistroKid and CD Babe come downwardly to whether y'all're trying to expand your outreach to artists, or to fans.
DistroKid's tools encourage creative person-to-artist interaction and can connect yous with record labels. Playlist Spotlight presents you with previews of ii songs released by DistroKid members. After listening to each preview, y'all vote for which vocal y'all remember DistroKid should characteristic on ane of its genre-themed Spotify playlists. Y'all tin can also submit one song of yours at a time to Playlist Spotlight, and the Spotify playlists refresh every calendar week.
Another great DistroKid feature is Slaps, a social media platform for DistroKid members. Here you tin listen to other musicians' releases, bring together groups, and get your music promoted the more y'all engage with and comment on other artists' posts. If you lot're an independent musician now, but hoping to sign to a record label, you can register for DistroKid Upstream; this lets record labels expect through your profile and achieve out to you lot directly if they are interested in signing your deed.
Both distribution services give you a verified checkmark on Spotify, build release webpages for you, and offer tools to make music videos. The basic features are very like, and the differences only come down to whether you lot prioritize artist connections or fan connections.
Does ane have better customer service over the other?
Navigating the independent musician industry can get confusing, and it's squeamish to be able to ask for assist when you need information technology.
Information technology's easy to get lost in the body of water of distribution rules and processes as an independent musician. CD Baby knows that, then its client service department is very helpful, though not always immediately responsive. Nigh of the reason its customer support response times have been deadening recently is that everyone has been stuck at home for the past year, and more people than ever accept been using CD Baby to release music.
The DistroKid Help Eye also has a customer back up channel, and every bulletin gets a response. The founder of DistroKid, Philip Kaplan, is also adequately active on the r/DistroKid Reddit page and often responds to questions and concerns posted past DistroKid members. He likewise uses the subreddit to crowd-source information virtually how he should modify DistroKid—apparently, the idea for Exit a Legacy came straight from user requests.
DistroKid vs CD Infant: Which service should y'all use?
You don't have to commit to using CD Baby or DistroKid forever, but you can only distribute a singular release through ane distribution service.
These ii music distribution services both accept their claim and demerits. Those whose career goals heart around forming creative person connections, and who intend to make frequent releases, should sign up for DistroKid. It'southward more likely to help you on the path to getting signed to a record label and has much quicker release times. In the future, if you desire to switch from DistroKid to CD Baby or another distribution service like Repost by SoundCloud, you can always opt in to Leave a Legacy on your releases before ceasing your annual payments.
CD Baby is a better choice for musicians who don't desire to worry about their music existence taken downwardly. If your career goals are more than focused on connecting with fans and expanding your outreach, CD Babe offers more accessible tools. If you try CD Baby and dislike information technology, there's no Leave a Legacy fee—you can just switch to a unlike distribution service for your side by side release.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, as a CD Baby member you will frequently receive emails with offers and discounts on its various services. You can opt out of these emails if yous find them annoying, but the deals can exist quite helpful.
Source: https://www.soundguys.com/distrokid-vs-cd-baby-52157/
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